Open Letter to Prahladananda Swami

“A Dangerous Trend among ISKCON Sannyasis”

Source: http://www.prahladanandaswami.com/index.php/page/236/

Source (video grab): https://lastingimpression.info/plidenta_swami/

Dear Prahladananda Swami,

Please accept my obeisances. All glories to the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

I am writing to you as you are the Sannyasa Minister for ISKCON (http://iskconsannyasa.com/). I have seen the articles on ISKCON News that your Ministry is asking for feedback (https://iskconnews.org/iskcons-sannyasa-ministry-asking-for-feedback,3448/), so I felt I should comply. However, I am not writing to discuss newly qualified candidates, but rather a member of your elite group who is not actually following what it means to be a sannyasi.

 I am writing to discuss The Journey Home by ISKCON sannyasi and your fellow GBC member and guru Radhanatha Swami. It is well known among all circles of Vedic culture, including the various branches of our Gaudiya sampradaya, that sannyasis are proscribed and prohibited from writing mundane books about their pre-sannyasa days. By taking the vow of sannyasa all the past activities of this and every other previous lifetime are put to rest. Therefore, it is time for these principles of sannyasa ashram to be taken seriously within ISKCON because The Journey Home sets a very bad example. And it is only a matter of time before other sannyasis follow suit thereby further degrading the entire Society into deeper ignorance. 

It is also my concern that sannyasis of the other sampradayas will naturally lose respect for the institution of the fourth order within ISKCON, as the popularity of this mundane literature in the form of The Journey Home spreads. In a word The Journey Home is making a farce and a laughing stock out of ISKCON sannyasis.

The Journey Home is only concerned with Radhanatha Swami’s pre-initiation days. His sannyasa initiation is not even mentioned. The reader is regaled with stories about his parents, his Jewish upbringing in Chicago, his admiration for “Hinduism,” and his adoration for various Mayavadi so-called “yogis” that he met along the way. Incidentally, three of these “swamis” who are highly praised in The Journey Home were accused of being serial rapists by dozens of female followers. These are some of the phony “yogis” who were rejected by your Guru Maharaja as cheaters, rascals and pretenders to the saffron cloth. The Journey Home also discusses the author’s tryst with a seductive woman and other mundane topics that no sannyasi should be found repeating.

Radhanatha Swami, (and in pursuit of his example, now Shivarama Swami) and some of the Chowpatty brahmacharis are also becoming YouTube personalities who freely offers mundane advice—like voting in elections or being more sincere human beings. There is a dangerous trend to leave behind what it means to be Vaishnava gurus and become “motivational gurus” or “relationship gurus.” It is well known among the four genuine sampradayas and all followers of sanatana dharma that such motivational gurus are not gurus at all—in fact they are only mockeries of what a spiritual master is supposed to be. Since YouTube is now filled with motivational harangues by ISKCON so-called “leaders,” it would be fair to ask whether a new batch of “swami autobiographies” in pursuance of Radhanatha’s example is on the way? By the way, are you writing yours—and if so what will it be called?

Radhanatha Swami has entire websites that were created the sole purpose of presenting his altruistic feel-good quotes about becoming better human beings (http://www.radhanathswamiquotes.com/tag/service/). There are long essays about his saintliness (https://www.thesacredconnect.com/radhanathswami) wherein he is described as “a towering spiritual figure of our time.” Radhanatha’s mundane quotes are the central focus of his book Nectar Drops which is sold in ISKCON centers along with his other Mayavadi literature. These are all outrages to the sannyasa ashram which you are supposed to lay the ground rules for following by ISKCON sannyasis.

It would appear that ISKCON’s Sannyasa Ministry, of which you are the leader, is involved with strictly regulating candidates during their pre-sannyasa initiations. But it seems as though you are silent and tolerant of offences to the fourth ashram once the vows have been taken. Many are wondering—why is Radhanatha Swami allowed to violate the sacred rules of sannyasa in this way? Is it due to cronyism, or some other symptom of hypocricy?  

In this book, The Journey Home, there are pictures of not only the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON but the spiritual master of His Divine Grace, Shrila Shri Om Vishnupada (108) Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura. Now can you imagine what the result would have been if during the manifest presence of your Grand Guru Maharaja that a disciple of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati would have printed a mundane autobiography with pictures of the Founder-Acharya of Gaudiya Math and other acharyas of the Gaudiya disciplic succession alongside well-known Mayavadis of the day like Ram Mohun Roy, Vivekananda, or Ramakrishna? It is unthinkable, but have you even paused for a moment to consider what would have been the result of such blasphemy? There would have been a enormous outcry, and it is very unlikely any author of such Mayavadi rubbish would ever have been allowed to remain within the ranks of Gaudiya Math. Furthermore, can you imagine also what action would have been taken by responsible members of the Gaudiya Math if our Lord Shri Gopala Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, were depicted alongside a mountain of human skulls as seen in this highly offensive The Journey Home? 

We are curious to know why you, as a leader of ISKCON, are allowing these offences to the sannyasa ashram to continue throughout the temples of the Hare Krishna Movement. The Journey Home has been translated into around a dozen world languages and ISKCON is all praise for this Mayavadi literature. Why do you as the leader of a Vaishnava sannyasa ministry allow this outrage?

If you are unable to put an end to these offences, then you should immediately step down from your post as Minister of Sannyasis within ISKCON and allow another more qualified member of ISKCON’s renounced order to properly carry out the duties. And that is a job which means putting an end to these offences to the order of sannyasa ashram in the form of mundane literature, mundane autobiographies, self-glorifying websites, and YouTube videos by ISKCON so-called swamis and their followers.

We feel that this is a very dangerous trend, especially since Radhanatha Swami enjoys what appears to be greater clout among ISKCON gurus, sannyasis and the general membership than any other leader in the Society. How many self-glorifying biographies are in the making by other ISKCON swamis? How many ISKCON swamis likewise feel the need to reveal their past “journeys”—their old religious affiliations, their parental guidance, their trysts in exotic places, their meetings with unqualified pretenders to the saffron cloth? 

An end must be put to this outrageous and offensive behavior once and for all. The Journey Home is an offence to the fourth ashram which you are supposed to represent. This book is highly offensive to the Founder-Acharya and all other acharyas in the Shri Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya, as well as to Lord Shri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. If you cannot put an end to this book, then you have not done your job.

Thank you for reading this.

Your servant in Prabhupada,

Kaliya Mardana dasa Brahmachary